Jay Leno's Impact on Local Stations

The LA Times reports http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-nbc-affils19-2009oct19,0,557820,full.story that NBC's move of Jay Leno to primetime has caused a drop in ratings for many local affiliates' 11:00 newscast. On a national basis, in the second week of October, Leno was drawing an average of about 5.6 million viewers per night. That's less than half of what it drew when it debuted; it's no surprise that the numbers fell off dramatically after the much-publicized kick-off. The figure of 5.6 million is also more than 30% lower than NBC's average last year running dramas in the same time slot.

Of course, the move was made not with raw ratings in mind, but with overall costs as the primary consideration. Leno's show is dramatically cheaper to produce than several primetime dramas, so the network makes a larger profit by running Leno, even with modest overall ratings.

On a local basis, it's a different story. Some local affiliates make as much as 30% of their revenue from their 11p.m. newscasts. With a much smaller lead-in supplied by Leno, many local affiliates are seeing their 11:00 newscast ratings - and attendant revenues - dropping precipitously. The key thing to watch is how the Leno show's ratings (and the local affiliates' 11p.m. ratings) do once Leno is up against reruns instead of new programs.